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Teachers & Students
In the fall, usually in October, we start harvesting our popcorn and soybeans. Land that has grown popcorn in one year grows soybeans the next. Students, can you think of what's special about the soybean (a legume) that make it a good crop to grow?
The answer is that legumes are nitrogen fixers, the soil is enriched after they are grown, and popcorn, like other corn, requires much in the way of nutrition for it to grow and produce. If you grow popcorn on the same soil year after year, your soil is depleted and your crop won't grow well. And even if you do alternate soybeans with corn, your corn yields can decrease. Sometimes you must give the soil a rest and grow something else, like alfalfa.
Here is a picture of a Midnight Blue popcorn field on a hazy summer day. It's fairly tall for popcorn, and only the cobs (inside the husks) are blue!
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Here is a close-up of a blue popcorn tassel. What is the function of the corn tassel?
Here's the answer: The tassel produces pollen. Tassels are the male flower of the corn plant. The pollen is what causes the ear of corn to grow and ripen.
The pollen falls off of the tassel and is blown by the wind to reach the silk of the ears. The silk is the female flower of the corn plant.
As you can see, tassels look like skinny flower fingers at the top of the stalk, they grow on top of the stalk after the plant is grown and when it is time for the ears of corn to begin growing.
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Here's what our blue popcorn looks like in June if you're in the middle of the row after it's been row cultivated. A row cultivator is used to break up the soil for aeration and to destroy small weeds.
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If you're in the middle of this row, like I was, you'd smell the sweetness of the corn and the warm, tilled earth, and you'd get pollen all over yourself and the camera!
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Here you can see a blue popcorn cob and a yellow popcorn cob. Actually, the blue popcorn is purple, like an eggplant, but it's called Midnight Blue.